<Begin Segment 8>

RP: Do you recall being involved with the evacuation of the Japanese Americans from Terminal Island?

MS: Well, yeah. That was where they started. They took 'em out first. And Ralph took off that day and didn't go teach.

RP: Oh, he didn't?

MS: And he went down there. I didn't go down there, but they were moving them out. And I know they, we lived close to a (school), it was called Euclid Heights, it was close to Whittier Boulevard on the east side of L.A. And this school was vacant, and I think the Quakers must have rented it or something, and they moved a bunch of stuff from the people in... what do you call it?

RP: Terminal Island?

MS: Terminal Island, yeah. And they put their stuff in this place, and I think even some of the Japanese might have stayed in this school. It was just a block from where we lived in the east side of L.A. And Ralph said that they were... I think the soldiers were going up and down as they were moving out, but there were people in the alley that were kind of stealing stuff, too.

RP: Looting things?

MS: Yeah, looting, uh-huh. But anyway, it was a very bad thing. And, you know, that year, we were going to meetings on Saturday once a month with the Quakers, American Friends Service Committee. And we, we were doing our social justice stuff with the Quakers that winter.

RP: Do you remember any particular Quakers that were in charge of... Virginia Swanson, do you remember her?

MS: No. There was a man that...

RP: Were you involved at all with Reverend Herbert Nicholson?

MS: Yeah, yeah, we knew him. And there were several others that had worked in Japan as missionaries. I can't think of the other name, but we knew him.

RP: What type of activities were you... what other ways of supporting Japanese Americans were you discussing and what did you... what else did you try to assist them with?

MS: Well, 'course, they started picking 'em up... I think Manzanar started in March, and a few people went there and helped them, a few Japanese helped them get it going. But we got there in September, and as I already said, I don't know if I said it since you've been recording, from the time we got there, we tried to figure out how to help 'em get out. And so we worked with the church, and we got the church to sponsor the hostel. And so it was from September to March, and then I went on the bus to Reno, and then the train to Chicago, and I had four men and a woman with me. And we went on the train, and we got to Chicago. One man ditched me in Reno, I think. Boy, he finally came to the hostel, and he brought us a five-pound box of chocolate covered nuts, and I never had such a big box of candy in my life 'til he brought it. But Ralph came out in the car, and he visited quite a few of the relocation centers, 'cause there were ten of 'em. But he didn't go to all of 'em, but he went to the ones in Poston --

RP: Gila?

MS: Gila River, and yeah. He went to the ones in Arizona. And he drove the car, and he had a couple of Japanese men with him, and they drove from Manzanar to Arizona to Chicago.

RP: And he was trying to encourage...

MS: Well, he was trying to set up a network of people. You see, the older people were kind of afraid for their children to come out, 'cause they didn't know how they'd get treated. But when we had the hostel, they were more willing to let their kids come out because they knew that we would help 'em when they got there. And actually, in Chicago, the government pretty soon set up an office. And actually, they took care of getting jobs. And like in Chicago, they were working for Curtiss Candy Company, and Kuneo Press. But I mostly found places for 'em to live (...) and the government helped 'em get jobs. And as I said to you earlier, we weren't even thirty yet. And when we helped a thousand (come) to Chicago, we didn't want to have another Little Tokyo in Chicago. So we closed the hostel and went to Brooklyn, and the Baptists would help us back there. But where we rented this frat house in Brooklyn, it was right close to the water, there was ten blocks maybe. And there was a dentist across the street, and they didn't want any "Japs." And, well, they stood up there and shook their fist at us and didn't want us to bring (them). And I know the government told us that we didn't have to open that hostel. But we said we weren't worried, and the Baptists were helping us, too. They were paying some of the money. And so the Japanese came and the government had a, or Brooklyn had a policeman right there on the corner, and he stayed there a while, and then nothing happened. So then he started walking around the block. And then it got so that he'd come to the hostel, and we'd just tell him the names of the people that were coming and going. And, you know, they were very nice people, and we never had any trouble. And then there's a person that lives here that told me that he and his wife were in Brooklyn, and they needed a place to stay. And somebody said, "Well, just go stay at the hostel," and so they did. They came and stayed with us. I don't even remember it at all.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.